If it weren't for bad news (story and a dress)

You know the saying; "If it weren't for bad luck, I'd have none at all." I'm just going with "bad news," because it's probably not about luck. Oh, and I did an almost instant dress refashion:

I previewed this thing on my last refashion post. Ooh, look at that thing. That's so bright and flowery. That's sure to be a fun dress.
Nope. Let's see: I've been dealing with a recent issue so difficult that I didn't plan on discussing it here. Let's just say, "huge change in living situation." I'm devastated. But, it's the end of summer, and although this is traditionally a hard time for me (get a year older, weather gets a little colder, general feeling of "not ready") I wanted to be back to work. You know, the school year.
Throughout the last year of my blog, and the year before that, I have been through many troubling events. I've been knocked down so many times, and felt so low that I couldn't be bothered to get out of bed. I was ashamed of what I had become. Of course, through all of this, I have always had one saving grace. I had one very important thing that I could be proud of. My work.
(Record skip noise) Hold on. Wasn't I supposed to be showing off a dress refashion, rather than launching into a story of woe several years long? Fine, I'll do both.
On Tuesday, I completed this dress in the easiest way possible. It was a no-sew that I turned into a some-sew. Also, I stole the idea. (Ahem: Refashionista). 

 Like my best refashions, this one came off the $0.50 rack, alongside this gorgeous 80s-made-but-1940s-style purple peplum dress that I may or may not have ruined by hand-washing it. As soon as I saw this piece, I wanted to make it work. It was so tacky and outdated that it actually appealed to me. This was bought from Outfitters, the store I pass by on my home from work.
So, I added my tweaks to the dress on Tuesday night, planning to grab some pics and write up the post the next day. I woke up yesterday and did some chores, making a trip to the post office and stuff. I decided to check my work email, see if there was anything I needed to know.
 For those who don't know me or my life, here's the rundown: although I have a degree in elementary education, I am not currently working as a classroom teacher. I work in the special needs department of the same elementary school that I attended as a child. I mostly work with specific students in kindergarten to help them meet their goals. I do a lot of behavior management (positive reinforcements, consequences, etc) and helping the students function with less anxiety by giving them a clear, expected schedule. 
I have found this job to be very rewarding. I watch these children learn and grow, dealing with everyday struggles that the average child might not have. I do my best to teach them how to do their best and I see the fruits of my labor in their successes. I love what I do and take a great deal of pride in it. 
Our school has within it, an onsite pre-school program. It is for 3 and 4 year olds, many of them with special needs, a lot of them with mobility issues. Many of them are still in diapers. 
Anyway, I loaded up my school email inbox. There was a message to me from my principal. It read: "Just wanted to let you know that you will likely be placed in the pre-school program."
My heart sank. That's not good news. Not at all.

Oh, hello. I'm just modeling a dress I'm about to list on Etsy. Just wanted to use a picture to illustrate my despair.

My degree is in elementary education. I'm qualified to teach a class, k-8. For the last couple years, I've used my limited position to do great things with "my boys" (and yes, they are almost always boys). I'm not trained in early childhood education, nor do I have children of my own. I don't know how, nor am I at all comfortable with changing diapers. 

I've seen non-verbal, non walking children pushed in wheelchairs and spoon fed in between physical therapy sessions. I'm more of an educator, I don't want to work in a nursing capacity. That's just...not what I do. I've filled in for aides in preschool, during the year that I worked as a roaming teacher, working in different classes all day. It was fine for a few hours, but I knew it just wasn't a good fit.

Being in pre-school kind of takes me away from the general population of the school. I'll be in pre-k, I won't be with my peers and co-workers that I've been working with. I won't be with the kids I've come to know. I won't be doing what I love to do. I will have to look for a transfer, I'll need a new job.

For so long, I've been battling depression and it just gets harder and harder with each setback. I am in the middle of a financial crisis and I've been filled with anxiety as I prepare for my next difficult step. I wasn't sure how I'd handle that, and now I've got another huge loss to deal with. 

Another dress I'm modeling. Here, I'm expressing a defeated exasperation. Moving on.

I don't write this stuff for sympathy. Surely, my sorrows don't seem too awful to anyone but me. It's just...I needed this job. My work gives my life meaning. It motivates me to go on. No matter how awful everything is, I would show up each day and give my children my all. With all that I've lost; how could I lose this, too?

So, you wanna see the damn dress?

I somehow managed to set up my tripod and get a few pictures. The show must go on, or something. 

Could I possibly look any sadder? I purposely did the sad sack, slouched over, head hanging pose to go along with my story. That is one depressing floral party gown. Meh. Wanna see how I did it?

Jillian will show you

That's the Refashionista in the dress re-style that I ripped off. Here's how it's done:

First, you put the dress on, keeping your arms through the top, not placing them in the sleeves. Button it to fit. Your sleeves will be hanging uselessly at your side.

I twisted each sleeve toward my body a little and then tied them together, like so. You see what I did there?

Brianlessly simple. I just wanted a little more stability. I am often leery of strapless, and have a strap adding habit.
Oh, I also have a thread losing habit. Like, a month ago, I couponed some black thread at Joann; the good stuff; "Gutter" something. I can't find it, and I'm not sure why it would be anywhere other than in or at my machine. (edit: found it under my bed which is right next to my sewing machine) Seriously? I had to grab something at Walmart, so I grabbed some thread there. I also needed some black elastic for which to make straps, as I was all out. (Maybe I'll show you what I did with it, later). Walmart was all out, too. Only had packages and packages of white elastic. Grrr--wait! What is that item carelessly tossed near the sewing supplies? Do you see what I see?

A pack of two elastic headbands, $1.50. Looks like straps to me. Thank you to whomever changed their mind on headbands and tossed them out.

\

Why do 80s garments always have so much extra material? I had to cut that thing out of the back for easier strap placement.

 Straps placed. I actually cut one headband down the middle and used both sides. Hell yeah, frugality. Now, I have a spare headband/elastic. Oh, and I moved a button from the bottom to replace a missing one in the middle. Let's just do the sweaty, sobbing fashion show.

Filter added to protect you from glare of pale, white leg.

I love the rounding of the boob area. Can you see how there's a ruffle in back? The long back of what was once the collar looks cool hanging in back. Lemme get a close up.
I 'shopped out the back moles. I'm embarrassed by them. The black chain necklace was a conscious effort to badass up the dress which prominently features pink flowers. The black bandana was worn in an attempt to camouflage my too-hot-to-style hair in a pony tail.
Guess what? This one's gonna have to be a two parter. I've rambled on enough already, and I didn't get to what I wanted to write about. Later.

 

It is mah birthday. Here's an August refash

Not sure if it's simple summer malaise or my usual personality, but today is my birthday and I wish I could add some exclamation points to that.
Some time ago, I showed you this muumuu:

I have this annoying habit of wanting to keep dresses as dresses (or in this case, old lady nighties as dresses.) I'm always a little bummed when refashions are dresses to skirts. So, I gave this article of clothing a try.

 I took it in in back, and added some darts in front. I just folded up the sleeves and sewed them like that. Then, I did the sash waist thing. Not bad, but I just didn't see myself wearing it. I knew what I had to do.

chop

I folded and pinned. Raw edges, don't care, it was a $1 muumuu. I sewed up a nice casing for the elastic.

I used that thick elastic and it was pretty easy to work with. So...now it's a skirt. Not totally exciting, but I love midi skirts. Now I have an item that I'll actually wear. Here's my outfit:

Posing is kinda hard.

 Oh, hello, midriff.

Terrible posing aside, how do you feel about the skirt? I like the big roses and the fact that it's pretty much just a sack of fabric, thus pretty comfortable. This is my go to summer outfit. A mid-length or long skirt with a cropped tee. You see, a skirt can be long and granny-ish, you just have to wear it with a tiny top. It all balances out.

Speaking of big, obnoxious flowers, here's a teaser of another dress that I hope to complete some day:

It kinda looks like I have crazy eyes. I do not have crazy eyes!

Thrift Hoard: Under Pressure

Can you believe it's been two whole weeks since I last blogged? I can. That's pretty typical of me. For frequent Craftthriftordie lookers, remember when I whined about how April is the cruelest month?
I take that back. August. August has been rough. 
I totally meant to write this last week, but then I wanted to work on refashions and two craft projects I was in the middle of (and wanted to blog about. I completed neither and did no blogging. If you can't finish one thing, why not try and finish twenty things? I always walk the line in between tuning out out into "no fucks given" zone, or busting my ass and getting shit done (while using profanity, apparently.)
In my last post, I gave a nod to one of my fave Queen songs (Fat Bottomed Girls) and received praise for it. So, this week, I give props to the Queen/David Bowie hit, "Under Pressure" with my title.
My plan for last week was to show you awesome crap that has been acquired and then provide some commentary on the state of yard sales and flea markets.

As I scope out my fellow thrifting blogger's posts, it seems we all have a similar mantra: leave no metal racks behind. Look at that little side table. It's just so sleek and didn't cost me an arm and a leg. That was one of the first things I bought when my sister and I hit up a flea market a couple weeks ago. First trip of the summer, what took me so long? I gave it a quick spray of black Krylon and listed it up. black metal side table

I also picked up that lovely lamp. It's just so beautiful with its curves bold color. I love how it's art deco, but looks like it was clearly inspired by nature, as well. Art deco doesn't usually have anything to do with nature, right? That period was in the 20s, with the jazz and the industrialization, and such.
Anyway, another unmarked piece of lighting that I've seen attributed to Royal Haeger Pottery, but I don't know. Also, this lamp was a steal. One can't always tell when forking over 3 bucks at a flea, getting all giddy at the deal, what the actual condition is. This one is kinda scratched. Seriously, who cares, it's an old lamp, and it's still nice! $20 for my green lamp on Etsy
Oh yeah, I was supposed to provide some commentary, a little editorializing on matters, if you will. I don't want to lose your attention, so first; here's another pic:

I purchased these slightly beat up canisters on that day.

You know what would be great? If one could get slightly better service from the rag tag dealers at the flea market.

Woah, don't look at me like that! I'm not talking about you people. 

I'm just saying that it would be nice to spend a leisurely morning browsing for old, rusty market treasures without having to hear about chips being implanted into the brains of patients under Obamacare. My word! Is everyone who sets up a booth in these places a tinfoil hat-wearing nutbag? I came to the flea market to rifle through your junk and then pay small amounts of money for neat, albeit sometimes useless items.

Like these vintage watercolor tins. What are those for? Free, so who cares.

Why yes, the United States is a great country where people can spout off whacked out conspiracy theories whilst trying to hawk vintage dishes and old nudie mags! Hey, if that's how you want to spend your Sunday...

Oh my god, I can't believe someone made this GIF. This is the GIF I need!

If you want to take the customer's money...maybe make an effort to not be a total creep? Maybe pay attention to the people who want to give you money in exchange for goods instead of shooting the breeze with the guy in the next booth about the Illuminati's plan to contaminate your water supply?

Hey. I'll show you some more pictures of things. Here's an adorable vintage Kodak Brownie in its cute little box. 

And that's a cute little Kodak "Flashfun" in a nice coral color. They're a package deal for $25.
Oh, and let me tell you about yard/garage/tag sales...
I wouldn't want to have one. You take the bulk of your spring/summer weekend to haul your old stuff outside, and if you're smart, arranging it nicely and attaching price tags. Of course, the price tags mean nothing, because no one (myself included) actually wants to pay for anything at a yard sale. So, to you brave souls, sweating away your leisure time for the sake of clearing out unused items to get some pocket change; I salute you.

However, to the folks who sold me this lovely 60s birdcage...Please remember that it's a yard sale, not Sotheby's auction house. This was an interesting sale. I'm assuming the man was a dealer, as his garage runneth over with good stuff. Clearly, this was not just a one day thing. It looked like the stuff had been there awhile. There was a considerable amount of digging and rummaging necessary to unearth good shit. And there was cobwebs and dirt.
Now, I don't mind that sort of thing...but it's gonna cost you. The people didn't want to budge on any of their "off the top of their heads" prices. The way I see it, if I have to knock a spider web off of an item, I'm practically doing you a favor in taking it off your property! I actually overheard the guy telling someone how much an item would go for on the internet.
I understand what he was saying; but we're not on the internet. You pay a much lower price when you brave the summer heat and dig through filthy, dusty boxes to find a filthy, dusty treasure.
So, of all the cool things they had (ships' wheel wall lamps, old dissection kit, mid century dollhouses, etc.) I just left with the bird cage that I paid 5 bucks for.

See, you can put plants in it! Aqua bird cage on Etsy.  
Last thing I'll show you is this game that I found. The man gave me this and some cool tiki mugs, for $2. That guy gets it.

The letters are so fun and I see many repurpose possibilities in this game. I haven't listed it yet. Oh and forgot to photograph my vintage books from the free pile. I'm humming "Under Pressure" again.
Linking up with Sir Thrift A Lot and maybe I'll actually look around for some other link ups.

I'm So Metal

I find it ironic that I title this post "I'm so metal," at a moment that I'm thinking an 8:30 bedtime wouldn't be so bad. Back in my glory days, I would be out at the Chinese restaurant, downing scorpion bowls, and tearing the roof off that mother with my GN'R karaoke (that's Guns N' Rose). I don't rock any more.
Too lazy to even come up with a segue into showing you my recent haul. The bloggers from a living space recently blogged about metal wire stands and racks, and I swear I was not trying to copy. I just happened to have also found some of those.

I found this one a little while back, as part of my "sketchy" thrift haul. I wasn't in great shape, so I painted it red.

I just love the grate looking thing. Red metal thing on Etsy Here's another:

Ooh, that one's aqua. It was a faded old brass tone and I had seen a few just like it on Etsy. I thought a new coat would do it some good. Aqua metal thing on Etsy.
Here's a lovely roadside find! It's an umbrella stand!

That's a useful thing to have. An umbrella stand? Whatevs. I put a plant in it.

A fake plant; and then, I took lousy pics. That thing just didn't want to cooperate for the camera. Umbrella stand on Etsy
I haven't yet sold my big, 50s, "Breadette", metal breadbox, but I have this smaller one now, as well.

I had a hard time "styling" this photo. That's my "cat and ball of yarn" salt and pepper shaker set. The "yarn" piece was dropped by some bull-in-a-china-shop ex and had to be glued back together, so it's decorative-only. I'm not still irritated, a year later.
 After purchasing this bread box, I immediately spotted another one just like it in a silver tone and then a third one that looked like a newer version of this in a dark green. I don't need 20 bread boxes, donaters! Donate more lamps. Lamps every day.

Look at this handsome fella. Ah, the 1950s, chalk ware, "blackamoor" statue/lamp. (Not sure if racist...) Can you believe someone was just going to throw this out?

(Sad trombone sound) Can you believe it now? Call me a crazed, hoarding, nut, but I can't sit by and watch a sweet-ass lamp be kicked curbside, just because he lost a foot and a huge chunk of its base. I'm not about to "fix" it either. I have an unusual idea on how to deal with this thing, which I'm not going to tell, because you'll probably just tell me that my idea is stupid and won't work, thus saving me the hassle, and maybe I like wasting time.
Do share any ideas you may have.

This little lamp pair looks like two hard boiled eggs with their shells removed. Amirite? Other than that, aren't they adorable? They're small and they're twins! I looked 'em up on Etsy and found an identical pair in black. The black ones had Royal Haeger labels on them! Yeah, I've got a fancy pottery maker's lamps. And I will now have to convince buyers to take my word. Little sculptural lamps on Etsy.

Isn't that a lovely Siamese cat "lamp?" Don't worry, those quotation marks are legit...

(Sad trombone sound, again) Aww, it was a tv lamp! And now it's not! I actually picked this up earlier this summer at a yard sale. Of course, each cat was missing an eye. The woman running the yard sale still made me fork over $5. I had to take the kitten's single eye and put it in the mom's empty socket, then replace the kitten's eyes with new rhinestones.

That shiny blue lamp is not recent. It's an old buy, but I'm trying to do a theme here. I bought it ages ago for my own use. But I don't use it, really. So, I listed it and realized it's kinda sad listing your own stuff. Also, when describing it, I wrote a song in its honor: "Fat Bottomed Lamps." Like the Queen song? I'm humming it right now, if that helps. Fat bottomed lamp, you make the rocking world go 'round (on etsy)
 I have so much more. I started this post before I went to the flea market, yesterday, so I really have more. First flea trip this summer, my sister and I rolled in around 11AM and still scored some goodies. Such as, a metal wire stand and green sculptural lamp!
So...I should put this long as hell post to sleep and do some listings? Ok.
 Linking up with Sir Thrift A Lot and his faithful, weekly thrift haul round up!

Goodbye Yellow Brick Road; lemon colored dress

I was looking for a yellow-themed song title to use for my blog post. Something somber sounding and moody like Coldplay's "Yellow." But, not Coldplay's "Yellow." Elton John's 70s soft rock works.
When I chat with folks from the old times, they often ask if I'm still doing this. Yeah, I'm still blogging, even if it's usually just once a week. It's just so time consuming and even when I've got all the time in the world, the blog seems to take a back seat to other responsibilities.
Let's begin.

That's one large, dandelion of a dress I had on. I took that picture when I got the dress, last winter. It was an 80s, thrift store find, in a light woven cotton material. I thought it would a perfect dress to try dyeing.

Of course, it was winter, so I wanted nothing to do with this yellow thing, so I put it away for a later time.
Around April, I whipped this out of the sewing stash, ready to give it a go. I wanted to try taking in that ginormous top and those huge-ass sleeves. After that, I would take up the length a bit. I think I just eyeballed it and started chopping.
After hacking the sides with scissors, I pinned it. Of course, I would not have been able to try it on without getting in contact with the sharp, pointy pins. Whatever. I'll just sew it up and see if it works.

  Let's see the results!

Nailed it.

One might not necessarily comprehend the scope of the fail, here. You see, I made the top way too tight and now the buttons are popping off and the shirt part is still way to long and it's all bunched up at the waist. What once had promise, is now just a pile of rags. Which is kind of a metaphor for me.
I cast this piece aside, thinking that maybe I'd make a skirt or something.
Flash forward a few months. Now, it's August. My bloggiversary month. What a long, shitty year it's been. It's hot, so maybe I can use that yellow rag to clear the sweat off my face as I toil in this daily struggle to survive. (What? Sometimes, even I can't believe the ridiculous stuff that flows from my middle fingers as i hunt and peck around the keyboard.)
More cutting. The sleeves and collar were soon relegated to scraps as I tore the hell out of that thing. Of course, I would replace the yellow buttons, but I sure as hell wasn't going to bother dyeing it. I'll probably never try that, I would most likely just stain floors and furniture.
I spent very little time deciding on the buttons.

 Those cool shank buttons just seemed to fancy fir this one.

I won't bore you with the tedious details. This was going to be weekend dress, like something one would wear around the yard to tend garden. Obviously that's not what I do, but can you picture someone else wearing this thing to pick tomatoes? Here's the big finish.

Half smile attempted. Back to my more common pose...

bitchy resting face

As you can see, I'm standing in front of a white curtain. I used string to hang a shower curtain between shelves in the kitchen for my Etsy pic backdrops. 

Oh damn, that image came out good.

They can't all be winners